Dinesh Karthik retirement: Is Dinesh Karthik retired from international cricket?

Dinesh Karthik retirement: The veteran Indian wicket-keeper batter had last played a T20I more than three years ago.

Veteran India and Royal Challengers Bangalore wicket-keeper batter Dinesh Karthik is in the limelight after playing a match-winning knock against Rajasthan Royals in the 13th match of the ongoing 15th Indian Premier League season at the Wankhede Stadium.

Yet to be dismissed in IPL 2022, Karthik has scored 90 runs in three innings at a magnificent strike rate of 204.54 with the help of 11 fours and five sixes.

Karthik, who had represented Bangalore for a season seven years ago, was bought back buy by them for INR 5.5 crore during the mega auction before this season.

In what is the second occasion of Karthik joining a franchise for a second stint, readers must note that the 36-year old player has played for a total of six IPL franchises in his career.

Dinesh Karthik retirement

Karthik, who has represented India in 152 matches across formats between 2004-2019, hasn’t played international cricket since the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019.

A puzzling batting promotion in the first semi-final against New Zealand in Manchester had resulted in Karthik scoring 6 (25) to become part of a batting collapse. An ODI failure unfairly led to a T20I snub as Karthik wasn’t part of the squad which toured West Indies post the World Cup.

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Karthik, who hasn’t announced retirement from any format till now, had publicly expressed a desire of wanting to play the role of a finisher during the ICC T20 World Cup 2020 (later moved to 2022 due to COVID-19).

However, a major reason for his continual exclusion from the national squads lately was his poor IPL form for Kolkata Knight Riders. Since his last international match, Karthik had scored 392 runs in 29 innings for KKR at an average and strike rate of 17.82 and 128.95 respectively including a solitary half-century to be eventually released by them ahead of IPL 2022 mega auction.

That being said, if Karthik continues to put on display such performances for RCB in this IPL, yet another national recall might not be far away.

A domestic stalwart on the back of what is a two-decade old career now, Karthik continues to both pile on the runs and grab outstanding catches behind the stumps in domestic cricket for Tamil Nadu.

For those who don’t know, Karthik had been praised a lot for his commentary stints during the ICC World Test Championship Final 2021 and The Hundred 2021.